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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


GIFT    OF 





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AR  19  1912 
GIFT 


Atm0  of 
lEimratum" 


Jffrattk 


MILLS  COLLEGE  FOUNDERS'  DAY 
'MAY  4,  1910 


\ 


,. 

FRANK  LINCOLN  GOODSPEED,  D.  D.  \  C)  \Q 

Address  delivered  at  Mills  College  on  Founders' 
Day,  May  4,  1910. 

T  IS  FITTING  for  an  institution, 
as  well  as  for  an  individual,  to 
stop  occasionally  and  go  back  to 
the  sources  of  its  life,  to  pay 
homage  to  its  founders  and  renew  the  visions 
and  ideals  which  at  the  beginning  led  onward 
into  the  future.  This,  as  I  understand  it,  is 
the  first  institution  founded  on  this  Western 
Coast  for  the  higher  education  of  women.  Its 
founders  were  educational  pioneers.  They  were 
not  originators  of  the  movement,  but  they  threw 
themselves  into  the  currents  of  the  movement 
which  has  resulted  in  the  establishmei$^Qf 
Christian  colleges  for  women  the  world  over.  T1: 
is  the  high  honor  of  Mrs.  Mills  that  she  was  a 
pupil  of  Mary  Lyon  and  later  a  co-teacher  with 
her  in  Mt.  Holyoke,  and  that  the  ideals  of  that 
great  woman  became  the  inspiring  force  in  the 
building  of  this  school.  The  disciple  has  been 
worthy  of  the  teacher.  The  life  of  Mary  Lyon 
was  a  life  wonderful  in  its  simplicity  and  un- 
ostentatious beauty.  Obscure  in  parentage,  but 
endowed  with  marvelous  gifts  and  mighty  in 

236815 


:  AIMS    OF    EDUCATION. 


her  holy  purpose,  she  will  ever  rank  as  one  of  the 
greatest  of  women,  in  native  talent,r-in  untiring 
industry  and  in  far-sighted  and  prophetic  gen- 
ius. The  founders  cff.  this  College  are  there- 
fore in  the  direct  line  of  this  holy  succession.  We 
are  here  today  to  ,  acknowledge  our  debt  to  a 
faith  in  the  founders  that  rose  triumphant  over 
every  obstacle,  to  rejoice  in  the  realization  of 
their  .aspirations  and  in  the  victories  which  are 
the  fruit  of  their  high  constancy  and  their  trust- 
ful courage.  '*• 

THIS  Is  A  'WONDERFUL  AGE. 

s 
There  has   never   been   an   age   in   history 

more  interesting,  heroic'and  poetic,  than  this.  So 
far  from  being  dull  and  prosaic,  so  far  from  our 
civilization  today  being  "effete,"  it  is  the  most 
engaging  era  in  the  career  of  man.  Think  of  the 
great  Arctic  and  Antarctic  explorations  calling 
forth  endurance  and  resource  unsurpassed  even 
by  Columbus.  On  the  table-lands  of  Central 
Asia,  England  and  Russia  stand  face  to  face. 
Persia  and  Turkey  and  China  are  coming  to 
self-government  and  freedom.  Nations,  long 
asleep,  are  awaking.  In  America  we  see  a 
marvelous  assembling  and  commingling  of  strange 
peoples,  men  of  every  nation  meeting  here  to  be 
moulded  into  one  new  race  which  we  trust  will 
be  the  ideal  of  all  races.  The  pen  is  proving 
mightier  than  the  sword  and  the  arbitrament  of 


THE  TRUE  AIMS  OF  EDUCATION. 


reason  is  superceding  the  appeal  to  arms.  The 
Parliament  of  man  and  the  federation  of  the 
world  is  now  seen  to  be  no  ideal  poetic  dream, 
but  a  practical  possibility  to  international  comity. 
No  less  brilliant  are  the  victories  of  natural 
science.  The  imaginative  pictures  of  former 
days  are  becoming  the  realities  of  this.  Edison 
is  our  poet  laureate.  We  shall  soon  achieve 
even  the  conquest  of  the  air. 

Chivalry  was  tame  compared  with  that 
higher  chivalry  which  finds  expression  in  crim- 
inals reformed,  disease  cured,  ignorance  en- 
lightened^  vice  banished,  continents  evange- 
lized— the  dream  of  universal  education  and 
Christian  civilization.  The  historic  Crusades 
were  tame  in  comparison  with  this  high  crusade. 
The  old  feudalism  of  a  Charlemagne  pales  be- 
fore the  possibility  of  a  nation  of  equals  who 
are  also  brothers.  Let  no  young  person  think 
that  there  is  nothing  romantic  in  the  world  to- 
day. In  fact  the  world  is  as  fresh  and  fair  as 
it. was  the* morning  God  set  it  spinning.  And 
no  generation  since  then  has  had  an  opportunity 
at  all  comparable  with  that  which  is  vouchsafed 
to  us,  the  latest  sons  of  God. 

THE  PERFECTING  OF  ONE'S  POWERS. 

The  first  aim  of  education  is  to  cultivate  and 
enlarge  one's  own  powers.  The  educated  man 
possesses  the  constant  delight  of  acquisition. 


4  THE    TRUE    AIMS    OF    EDUCATION. 

He  sees  more.  Life  for  him  will  be  forever 
larger  and  fuller  and  more  blessed.  The  lights 
that  flame  in  his  intellectual  horizon  will  never 
go  out.  Narrowness,  which  shows  itself  in  vari- 
ous forms — in  religious  bigotry,  in  partisan  pol- 
itics, in  the  dogmatism  of  science,  in  the  pitiable 
pride  of  an  illiberal  and  irreverent  culture — all 
such  intolerance  is  alien  to  the  ideal  and  spirit 
of  true  education.  And  fortunately  such  na- 
tures are  an  exception.  For  a  generous  training 
exerts  a  broadening  influence  and  tends  to  make 
even  the  narrow  and  intolerant  mind  mellow, 
receptive,  and  expansive.  The  study  of  other 
ages,  civilizations  and  literatures,  the  deeper 
understanding  of  human  life  and  the  natural 
universe,  <the  companionship  with  the  master 
spirits  of  the  race,  all  tends  to  rid  one  of  the 
narrowness  and  -uncharitableness  which  often 
mark  the  non-educated  or  half-educated  man. 

But  this  toleration  must  not  become  indif- 
ference. This  liberalism  must  not  degenerate 
into  a  lazy  acquiescence  in  all  opinions.  The 
educated  man  is  equipped  to  form  his  owft  opin- 
ions. The  highest  tolerance  is  not  that  which 
cares  na  whit  as  to  what  is  truth,  but  that  which 
holds  firmly  its  own  convictions  and  yet  is  hos- 
pitable to  all  truth  from  whatever  source  it 
springs.  Opinions  are  worthless  until  they  have 
been  tried  and  have  stood  the  test.  But  how  you 
meet  opposition  and  conflict  discloses  whether 


THE  TRUE  AIMS  OF  EDUCATION.  .  5 

you  possess  the  spirit  of  the  well-bred  student  or 
not.  The  quack  depends  upon  deceit  or  the 
loudness  of  his  protestations.  The  real  scholar 
depends  upon  the  might  of  his  naked  truth. 
Strength,  patience  and  generosity  are  marks  of 
the  cultivated  mind.  The  scholar  has  convic- 
tions, but  is  always  open  to  conviction.  He  is 
hospitable  to  all  well-grounded  opinions;  but  he 
never  sinks  into  flimsy  indifference  or  a  toler- 
ance which  lacks  fibre  and  settled  and  profound 
persuasion  of  the  truth. 

The  method  of  education  in  vogue  today 
tends  to  develop  the  whole  man.  The  old  sponge 
method,  where  the  mind  simply  gathers  up  facts 
and  dates  and  information  as  the  sponge  soaks 
up  water  is  now  happily  a  thing  of  the  past.  We 
have  found  that  it  is  not  what  we  stuff  and  cram 
into  the  mind  that  develops  it,  but  wjiat  we 
draw  out  of  the  mind  in  the  healthful  exercise  of 
all  its  faculties.  The  very  word  education, 
which  means  to  draw  out  or  lead  out,  gives  us 
the  key  to  the  right  method.  In  "  Paracelsus" 
Browning  tells  us  that 

"to  know, 

Rather  consists  in  opening  out  a  way 
Whence  the  imprisoned  spirit  may  escape, 
Than  in  effecting  entry  for  a  light 
Supposed  to  be  without." 

And  Ruskin  says,  "Education  is  leading  human 
souls  to  what  is  best,  and  making  what  is  best 


6  THE    TRUE    AIMS    OF    EDUCATION. 

of  them."    It  is  the  awakening  of  the  heart,  the 
arousing  of  the  spirit.     It  is  not  the  amassing  of 
truths,  but  the  deep  realization  of  truth.     Edu- 
cation arouses,  develops  and  directs  the  powers 
of  the  whole  man.     It  does  not     create     those 
powers.     It  cannot  make  a  fool     into    a     wise 
man — it  can  only  make  him  a  greater  fool.    Edu- 
cation,   without   ability   and   conscience,   makes 
the  charlatan.      As  Pope  long  ago  expresses  it, 
"So  by  false  learning  is  good  sense  defaced ; 
Some  are  bewildered  in  the  maze  of  schools, 
And  some  are  quacks  whom  nature  meant  for 

fools." 

The  correct  method  of  education  develops 
and  trains  all  the  powers  for  use  toward  a 
worthy  end.  It  is  the  tilling  of  the  whole  in- 
tellectual, moral  and  spiritual  acreage  of  life. 
It  is  the  man  coming  to  himself  and  taking  pos- 
session of  himself.  According  to  the  sponge 
method,  the  teacher  imparts  knowledge  as  a 
manufactured  article.  According  to  the  modern 
method, — which  is  only  the  revival  of  the  So- 
cratic  method, — he  furnishes  the  raw  material 
and  inspires  the  pupil  to  take  it  and  manufacture 
for  himself.  In  the  former,  the  student  is 
wholly  dependent.  In  the  latter,  he  acquires 
something  of  originality  and  'facility,  and  is 
learning  to  be  able  by  and  by  to  take  the  capi- 
tal of  the  world's  wisdom  and  knowledge  and 
do  business  for  himself. 


THE  TRUE  AIMS  OF  EDUCATION. 


The  true  and  false  method  of  study  and' 
research  has  been  aptly  compared  by  an  illustra- 
tion taken  from  the  spider,  the  ant,  and  the  bee. 
Some,  like  the  spider,  spin  out  of  themselves 
their  web.  Some,  like  the  ant,  only  heap  up'  and 
use,  as  need  requires,  their  gathered  store.  But 
others,  like  the  bee,  extract  sweet  matter  from 
the  flowers  of  garden  and  field,  but  like  the  bee, 
add  to  it  of  their  own  life  and  fashion  and 
elaborate  it  by  their  own  efforts  to  suit  their 
highest  purpose.  That  is  the  true  method.  It 
gathers,  not  to  lay  up  in  memory  raw  and  un- 
assimilated  facts;  but  to  remodel  the  material 
and  add  personality  to  the  process  of  making 
beautiful  and  useful. 

If  this  is  true,  then  it  will  be  evident  that 
the  man  or  the  woman  who  stands  up  before  the 
young  mind  as  its  teacher  is  of  infinitely  more 
importance  than  the  tools,  the  architecture,  the 
apparatus  or  the  course  of  study.  Says  Presi- 
dent King  of  Oberlin  in  his  volume  on  "Per- 
sonal and  Ideal  Elements  in  Education,"  "We 
are  in  danger  of  forgetting  that  in  education,  in 
ethics,  and  in  religion,  and  in  all  true  living  the 
most  important  facts  are  persons."  The  teacher 
is  the  maker  of  motive.  We  have  long  heard 
that  a  liberal  education  is  a  boy  on  one  end  of  a 
log  and  President  Mark  Hopkins  on  the  other 
end,  which  is  only  a  picturesque  way  of  expres- 
sing the  absolute  necessity  of  character  in  the 


8  THE    TRUE    AIMS    OF    EDUCATION. 

teacher.  In  writing  to  his  daughter  about  her 
choice  of  studies,  Emerson  said,  "It  matters  not 
so  much  what  you  study  as  with  whom  you 
study."  "Education,"  says  Matthew  Arnold,  "is 
an  atmosphere,  a  discipline,  a  life."  The  richer 
the  nature,  the  nobler  the  spirit,  the  finer  the 
instincts  and  training  of  a  teacher,  the  more 
he  becomes  the  incarnation  of  all  desirable 
qualities.  In  his  own  personality  truth  must  first 
be  embodied  and  vitalized.  It  is  the  teacher  that 
makes  the  school,  the  generous,  wise,  magnani- 
mous teacher  who  admires  rightly,  whose  soul- 
life  is  lived  with  masterpieces,  whose  intellectual 
being  is  fed  by  the  best  food,  whose  presence 
creates  an  atmosphere  where  young  souls'  tend- 
rils, reaching  out,  are  fed  and  satisfied.  When 
mind  confronts  mind  and  character  grapples  with 
character,  the  vital  human  element  in  the  teacher 
is  the  well-iaigh  all-important  question.  Give 
me  a  b^re  room,  if  you  give  me  also  an  Arnold 
of  Rugby.  Give  me  a  plain  and  severe  Puritan 
house,  if  only  Milton,  the  vigorous  and  high- 
souled  young  scholar  presides  there.  They  will 
inspire  thinking  and  they  Will  lead  the  life  on 
to  being  and  doing.  At  the  old  tumbledown 
schoolhouse  near  Stratford  where  Shakespeare 
taught  school  they  may  have  learned  "small 
Latin  and  less  Greek;"  but  I  venture  they  got 
something  more  and  infinitely  better  from  that 
myriad-mind.  Education  is  not  much  more  nor 


THE  TRUE  AIMS  OF  EDUCATION.  9 

less  than  this — what  the  mind  of  the  teacher  can 
do  for  the  mind  of  the  pupil.  Compared  with 
that  all  else  is  accessory  and  unimportant.  True 
teaching  is  inspirational.  The  best  teacher  does 
not  teach  for  mere  financial  reward,  else  his  en- 
trance to  a  school-room  profanes  the  sacred 
name  of  teacher  and  the  more  sacred  name  of 
youth.  Training  is  good,  but  impulse  is  bet- 
ter,—that  power  which  cannot  be  defined,  but 
which  lifts  the  student  up  into  great  enthusiasms 
and  works  in  him  as  commanding  personality, 
which  does  for  him  something  of  what  Paul  did 
for  Timothy,  what  Aristotle  did  for  Plato,  and 
Goethe  and  Cromwell  did  for  Carlyle,  and  Dante 
did  for  Longfellow,  and  Thomas  Arnold  did  for 
multitudes  of  English  youth,  and  Mark  Hop- 
kins did  for  those  who  came  in  contact  with  his 
imperial  character.  It  is  the  crowning  of  knowl- 
edge with  wisdom,  the  imparting  of  skill  so  that 
the  pupil  shall  know  not  merely  how  to  get  a 
living  but  how  to  live, — and'  the  difference  is 
the  whole  distance  between  the  animal  and  the 
archangel.  The  true  teacher  thinks  only  of  his 
opportunity  to  lead  living  souls  to  the  largest 
and  richest  intellectual  life,  to  the  highest  ex- 
pansion of  thought,  to  a  loving  communion  with 
the  great  forces  and  ideals  of  the  world,  to 
citizenship  in  the  republic  of  truth  and  beauty,  to 
the  full  exercise  of  all  those  gifts  that  shall  most 
enhance  the  glory  of  God  and  the  good  of  men. 


IO  THE  TRUE  AIMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

CULTIVATION  OF  SELF  MASTERY, 

;  The  next  aim  of  true  education  is  to  make 
the  student  master  of  himself.  We  talk  much 
of  culture.  What  is  culture  ?  Is  it  not  this,  the 
perfect  mastery  of  all  one's  powers,  the  perfect 
control  and  use  of  all  one's  faculties?  Culture 
is  you  taking  possession  of  yourself.  Our  ac- 
complishments must  grow  into  us  and  become 
part  and  parcel  of  us.  Education  is  reality.  It 
is  a  call  to  life.  It  is  a  summons  to  virtue  and 
conscience.  It  makes  a  man  so  rich  that  it  makes 
him  willing  to  be  poor  and  patient,  because  more 
noble  souls  have  perished  from  luxury  than  from 
hunger.  True  education  has  power  to  breed  bet- 
ter thoughts,  to  lift  .us  above  ourselves,  power 
to  help  us  control  ourselves  and  master  our  cir- 
cumstances. It  excites  and  expands,  chastens 
and  nourishes,  produces  an, .  intellectual  climate, 
makes  one  a  citizen  of  the  commonwealth  of  in- 
telligence. Learning  is  not  a  staff  by  which  a 
man  climbs  above  his  fellows,  but  a  torch  by 
which  he  lights  the  way  for  his  less  fortunate 
fellows.  It  is  not. a  negative  thing  or  a  critical 
thing  at  all;  but  positive,  constructive,  helpful. 
The  royal  souls  are  the  generous  souls. 

"Thyself  and  thy  belongings 
Are  not  thine  own  so  proper,  as  to  waste 
Thyself  upon  thy  virtues,  them  on  thee. 
Heaven  doth  with  us  as  we  with  torches  do, 


THE  TRUE  AIMS  OF  EDUCATION.  U ,»• 

Not  light  them  for  ourselves,  for  if  our  virtues 

Do  not  go  forth  of  us,  'twere  all  alike 

As  if  we  had  them  not.     Spirits  are  not  finely 

touched, 
But  to  fine  issues." 

Possession  is  opportunity.  Noblesse  oblige! 
Trusts  must  either  be  defaulted  or  executed.  If 
this  age  is  to  be  true  to  its  vast  chance,  if  the 
shadows  are  to  flee  away,  if  falsehood  is  to  die, 
then  our  young  men  and  women  must  hear  the 
challenge  of  the  times  and  bear  on  helmet  and 
on  brow  and  deep  within  the  heart,  the  motto  of 
the  German  Emperors?  "Ich  dien",— ^1  serve. 
God  can  never  use  a  cynic  who  snarls,  or  a  pes- 
simist who  hopes  for  the  worst,  or  a  sardonic 
soul  who  sneers  in  bitter  irony.  Leaders  are 
always  great  believers.  Doubt  palsies.  Faith  is 
the  victory  for  those  who  would  help  their  gene- 
ration •  and  would  work  constructively  toward 
that  far-off  divine  event  to  which  the  whole  crea- 
tion moves.  This  is  the  difference  between  the 
prophet  and  the  clown,  between  the  hero  and  the 
coward.  It  is  the  difference  of  outlook.  The 
greatest  of  earth  are  seers.  They  take  time  to 
think.  Even  'Sir  Galahad  must  have  some 
shaded  nook  where  he  may  rest  and  pray,  or  he 
will  not  have  strength  out  "where  the  foul  foe 
hovers  and  the  battle  waits."  Not  otherwise  is 
the  Holy  Grail  recovered.  Not  otherwise  are 
men  fitted  for  their  tasks  and  for  their  victories. 


12  THE  TRUE  AIMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

The  fine  ministry  of  education  is  to  make  men 
masters  of  themselves  and  this  fair  earth,  to  help 
them  see  and  enjoy  and  do.  It  is  to  give  the 
soul  self-expression,  making  it  free  and  strong 
and  true  and  rich  and  loving  and  complete. 

EDUCATION  Is  FOR  CHARACTER. 

Character,  then,  is  the  real  and  high  aim 
of  the  educational  process.  "The  true  aim  of 
the  highest  education,"  says  Mark  Hopkins,  "is 
to  give  character  rather  than  knowledge,  to 
train  men  to  be  rather  than  to  know/' 

Ideals  change  as  one  goes  on  in  life.  Youth 
seeks  happiness,  midlife  strives  for  success  and 
power,  and  old  age  is  cheered  by  the  vision  of 
peace.  Prof.  Blaike,  in  his  autobiography,  tells 
us  how  in  the  days  of  youth  he  wrote  to  the 
young  lady  who  was  to  be  his  life  companion  that 
they  would  together  find  in  future  years  supreme 
good  in  united  lives,  their  union  making,  as  he 
believed,  unalloyed  happiness.  Later  pn  he 
found  that  happiness  was  not  the  highest  aim 
of  life.  Experience  and  observation  had  taught 
him  that  the  things  to  be  coveted  were  three, — 
a  great  goal,  a  great  struggle,  and  a  great  vic- 
tory. And  then  he  adds  what  seems  to  be  an 
afterthought,  that  there  should  be  a  third 
quality.  And  what  he  seems  to  put  last  I  would 
put  first,  namely,  a  great  inspiration.  '  Here 
is  the  life  that  leads  to  the  heights  of  being:  a 


THE  TRUE  AIMS  OF  EDUCATION.  ij 

great  inspiration,  a  worthy  goal,  a  manly  struggle, 
and  victory  crowning  all.  Happiness  will  come, 
but  it  is  not  a  primary  consideration,  nor  is  it 
to  be  sought  directly.  Happiness  is  life's  by- 
product. We  meet  it  in  the  way  of  duty,  never 
by  direct  search,  or  selfish  pursuit;  but  only  as 
the  companion  of  service,  the  reward  of  well- 
doing. "Duty  done  is  the  soul's  fireside."  Set 
yourself,  therefore,  upon  some  worthy  goal, 
espouse  some  high  cause,  hitch  your  wagon  to  a 
star,  get  an  inspiration  and  an  ambition  noble 
enough  to  swallow  up  all  other  ambitions,  or  to 
include  them  all,  and  then  life  will  be  rich  and 
rewarding  and  victorious.  To  whomever  wrote 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  the  controlling, 
steadying  inspiration  was  this,  "Looking  unto 
Jesus,  the  author  and  perfecter  of  our  faith." 

With  our  New  England  forefathers  educa- 
tion and  religion  went  hand  in  hand.  They  did 
not  wait  until  the  building  of  a  colleg'e  was  an' 
easy  task.  Within  sixteen  years  after  the  land- 
ing at  Plymouth  Rock,  in  the  midst  of  bitter 
poverty  and  privation/  they  founded  Harvard 
College,  as  her  motto  declares,  "Pro  Christo  et 
ecclesia," — for  Christ  and  the  Church,  each  free- 
holder of  the  infant  colony  being  taxed  one  shil- 
ling or  a  peck  of  corn.  The  impulse  that  founded 
Yale  College  was  a  religious  one,  and  the  oldest 
college  in  Virginia  was  chartered,  as  the  record 
declares,  "That  the  youth  of  Virginia  might  be 


14  THE  TRUE  AIMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

piously  educated."  Heroism,  faith  and  sacrifice 
went  into  the  foundation  stones  of  all  our  early 
colleges.  If  you  seek  for  the  brain  and  con- 
science of  New  England  in  the  early  days,  you 
will  find  them  in  the  colleges  which  assumed  the 
intellectual  and  moral  leadership  of  the  new 
nation.  They  shaped  our  institutions  and 
moulded  our  civilization.  One  historian  de- 
clares that  "a  failure  to  plant  and  endow  Har- 
vard college  for  twenty-five  years  would  have  so 
stunted  and  paralyzed  the  social  progress  •  of 
Massachusetts  as  to  have  altered  essentially 
the  whole  course  of  events  bearing  on  our  na- 
tional history  in  which  Massachusetts  had  any 
part:" 

The  secret  of  all  this  lies  in  the  fact  that 
the  strength  of  a  man's  mind  is  meas- 
ured by  the  strength  of  the  purpose  that  con- 
trols it.  A  strong,  pure  purpose  means  char- 
acter, and  character  clarifies  the  mental  vision. 
Selfishness  clogs  the  faculties  and  obstructs  the 
vision.  Unselfishness  alone  is  able  to  see  things 
in  their  right  relations.  It  imparts  clarity  to  the 
mental  faculties  and  gives  to  the  life  a  splendid 
poise.  Once  the  earth  was  supposed  to  be  the 
center  of  the  universe,  and  as  a  consequence 
astronomy  was  full  of  error  and  confusion.  So 
a  self-centered,  self-seeking  life  is  nevef  at  rest, 
never  at  peace.  Nor  can  it  be  a  truly  efficient 
life.  Only  as  life  finds  its  center  in  God  does 'its 


THE  TRUE  AIMS  OF  EDUCATION. 


'confusion  vanish  and  its  activities  issue  in  order 
and  nobleness.  Then  the  great  volume  of  na- 
ture is  illumined  ;  it  reveals  its  hidden  beauties  ; 
familiar  things  take  on  new  value  ;  the  soul  be- 
comes both  telescopic  and  microscopic,  and  finds 

"Tongues  in  trees,     books     in     the     running- 

brooks, 
Sermons  in  stones,  and  good  in  everything/' 

These,  then,  are  some  of  the  things  for  which 
this  School  stands.  It  is  well  that  the  purpose 
and  the  toil  of  its  founders  should  from  time  to 
time  be  recalled  and  their  high  aims  rehearsed 
in  the  presence  of  those  who  here  drink  at  the 
fountain  of  learning.  It  was  their;  wish  that  this 
College  should  ever  stand  for  Christian  char- 
acter, the  highest  type  of  culture  and  of  faith. 
At  the  close  of  "Tom  Brown  at  Rugby,"  you 
will  remember  how  Tom  is  pictured  as  coming 
back  to  the  old  school  and  sitting  in  the  old  seat 
in  the  chapel.  How  it  brings  up  the  image  of 
his  sainted  teacher!  And  how  he  longs  -to  see 
that  teacher  again  and  tell  him  the  measure  of 
his  love  and  reverence  and  how  he  would  be  the 
man  the  teacher  wanted  him  to  be  through  life 
and  death  !  And  the  sun  glints  in  through  the 
window  and  rests  upon  the  grave  beneath  the 
altar  there  and  the  place  is  transfigured.  And 
somehow  the  memory  of  that  earthly  teacher 
becomes  mingled  with  the  feeling  of  the  presence 


l6  THE  TRUE  AIMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

of  the  Great  Teacher  who  spake  as  never  man 
spake,  and  the  brave  heart  goes  out  into  the 
world  in  the  spirit  and  knowledge  of  Him  who  is 
on  earth  the  embodiment  of  purity  and  tender- 
ness and  love.  It  is  indeed  a  divine  business,  a 
work  which  cannot  be  measured  by  human 
measurements  or  computed  by  any  human 
arithmetic.  As  it  was  the  wish  of  the  founders, 
so  let  it  be  our  prayer  and  our  endeavor  that 
this  School  may  always  lead  and  point  to  the 
Divine  Teacher  of  men.  Thus  far  it  has  grown 
like  the  trees,  planted  hereabouts  by  the  founders, 
that  draw  their  sustenance  from  the  earth  and 
air.  I  boldly  prophesy  that  the  years  to  come, 
as  the  years  past,  will  find  it  sending  out  bless- 
ings into  the  world  as  many  as  the  leaves  and 
blossoms  on  these  trees,  the  blessings  of  trained 
intellects,  of  womanly  lives,  of  Christian  ideals, 
of  unselfish  ministry  to  a  needy  world,  all  of 
these  being  leaves  of  that  divine  tree  which  is 
for  the  healing  of  the  nations.  Thus  and  only 
thus  will  the  purpose  of  the  founders  bej  realized, 
amd  their  lives  reappear  in  the  enrichment  of  the 
generations  yet  to  be. 


U.C.BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


CDSbb37D75 


